Recording - April 2012 - 50

Continued from page 49 listening to the best new music you can find. And if you don’t like what’s on the radio, check out some Neo-Folk artists or Indie Rock bands that you’ll find on Last.FM or Spotify.com. Search until you find something from a current and contemporary genre that gets used in TV shows and movies, then listen until the melodies, rhythms, and lyric themes feel like part of your repertoire, then put those new tools to use! Want to really get your mind blown? Go to Tunefind.com and search for music from TV shows like House, Justified, or Grey’s Anatomy? Better yet, just check out the lists of shows they have music listed for and start clicking. It may be the best way you’ll ever find to learn what kind of music works best in various shows. And don’t forget—take notes! Tip #2: Write Universal Lyrics for the Best Chance of Success. (Excerpted from Shortcuts to Songwriting for Film & TV) Lyrics that reach a large audience and work with many scenes are a plus The word “universal” gets tossed around a lot when talking about song lyrics for film and television. Music users in the film and TV market often say they’re looking for songs with “universal lyrics.” But just what does that mean? A universal lyric is … • A lyric that a large number of people can identify with or relate to. • A lyric that will not conflict with the specific content of a scene. A good film and TV lyric is one that evokes an experience for the audience. While the onscreen action takes care of the physical details—the who, what, when, where—your job is to fill in the emotional details, making the audience feel or understand the experience on a deeper level, identify with or sense what it would be like to be there. Universal Lyrics: Use a Shared Experience Connect with your audience by identifying common ground. Writing a universal lyric means, first and foremost, being human. The simple fact that we’re all human beings guarantees a certain amount of shared experiences, attitudes, and emotions. By writing about those, you create something your audience can identify with and relate to. People are always interested in something that has relevance to themselves. Sometimes, especially when writing about a personal experience, songwriters lose sight of the
50

common ground that underlies their feelings, shutting out the broader audience. Opening the song up, getting the audience to identify with it, can often be a matter of an easy rewrite. For example, if your song lyric describes a meeting between two climatologists in Antarctica, you won’t have a situation that many listeners can identify with. So, here’s the trick: Leave out the physical

To hear a variety of love songs and lost-love songs that have been used in film and TV, listen to “Songbird” by Fleetwood Mac, “Sun Comes Up” by John Legend, Jem’s “Flying High, and “Gravity” by John Mayer. [There are many more songs like these in the “Film & TV Song List” in Shortcuts to Writing Songs for Film & TV! —Ed.] • Family relationships: Everyone, simply by virtue of being human, has been through the ups and downs of family relationships. As with love songs, rather than writing about the specifics of your family or someone else’s, leave that to the script and focus on the emotions between and around family members: dealing with a family member’s weaknesses or strengths, sibling rivalries and bonds, a parent’s feelings watching a child grow up. Take a look at the lyrics to “Can’t Go Back Now” by The Weepies or Rain Perry’s song “Beautiful Tree” to see two different but universal lyric approaches to family relationship songs. • Good times and celebrations: The human desire to party hearty is truly universal. There are many types of shared situations that bring people together in joy and friendship: weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, or just a Saturday night out with friends. A large number of TV shows and films feature a party or celebration scene at some point and they need upbeat songs with a feel-good message. Several music users I spoke with mentioned The Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling” as the type of universal, good-times song they can always use. Keep your lyrics focused on the feel-good emotion. Use action words and vivid language that describe the physical expressions of happiness, anticipation, friendship, and exuberance. Don’t just tell listeners about the experience; make them feel it! Avoid Proper Names, Place Names, and Dates Increase your opportunities for placements with this simple tip. It’s the end of a TV season. Everyone is watching the final episode of a hugely successful TV drama. The two most popular characters are finally getting married after nearly losing each other to jealous exlovers, life-threatening diseases, and the usual dramatic twists. For the wedding scene, the music supervisor has chosen a romantic Pop ballad, “Sheila, I Love You.” The bride walks down the aisle, the groom stares lovingly at her as the song fades in and swells to full volume and the audience Continued on page 53

“A universal lyric will not conflict with the specific content of a scene.” —Robin Frederick
details of “climatologist” and “Antarctica” and focus on the broader human experience that lies behind it: Finding love where you least expect it. This is a much more universal lyric. Now, just think about all the movies and TV shows that have used the “love in unexpected places” story idea. A song lyric featuring that shared experience, expressed in a lyric that evokes the feeling for the audience, could be used in any of them, increasing the potential for placements. Writing about shared experiences As you can see from the example I just gave you, using the specific physical details of a situation may limit the audience that can identify with your song. Here are three ways to avoid that problem. • Keep your lyric focused on emotional details and let the script deal with the specific physical details. • Focus your song tightly on a single feeling at a peak moment when emotions are at their highest. • Keep in mind that the viewer is most likely to identify with the singer. A first person point of view (“I” “me”) is a good way to encourage that. Reveal how the situation looks and feels through the singer’s eyes. If the singer is commenting on someone else (“you”), try a direct, conversational approach in which the singer shares his or her thoughts and feelings with the person. Keep things in the present; avoid referring to events and people in the past. It’s all about being there. Three Groups of Shared Experiences (More can be found in the book!) • Love relationships: A lyric that reveals the emotions driving a relationship or explores the reasons why people fall in or out of love is some thing that listeners never grow tired of; it’s the ultimate human experience. Finding love, losing love, and keeping love alive provide an endless source of inspiration for both songwriters and scriptwriters. Many film and TV scripts are built on these ideas because viewers find them irresistible.


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Recording - April 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - April 2012

Recording - April 2012
Fade In
Table of Contents
Talkback
2012 Winter NAMM Show Report
Sonodyne SM100Ak and SM50Ak Active Monitors
Shure SRH1440 Headphones
Noises In—Noises Out
Recording Fundamentals. Chapter 4: Introduction To Microphones—Part One (History and Design)
Reviewed and Revisited: iZotope Ozone 5 Advanced
Pelonis Model 42 Stereo Monitors
The Science And Art Of Ambisonics
Little Labs i-VOG Analog Bass Resonance Tool
Readers’ Tapes
Plug-In Outlet
Cerwin-Vega! XD3 Powered Desktop Speakers
Once Over—Reviews In Brief
Do It Yourself: Make Your Own Check Mix Monitor
Rob Papen eXplorer
Advertiser Index
Fade Out
Recording - April 2012 - Recording - April 2012
Recording - April 2012 - Cover2
Recording - April 2012 - 1
Recording - April 2012 - 2
Recording - April 2012 - 3
Recording - April 2012 - Fade In
Recording - April 2012 - 5
Recording - April 2012 - Table of Contents
Recording - April 2012 - 7
Recording - April 2012 - Talkback
Recording - April 2012 - 9
Recording - April 2012 - 2012 Winter NAMM Show Report
Recording - April 2012 - 11
Recording - April 2012 - 12
Recording - April 2012 - 13
Recording - April 2012 - 14
Recording - April 2012 - 15
Recording - April 2012 - 16
Recording - April 2012 - 17
Recording - April 2012 - 18
Recording - April 2012 - 19
Recording - April 2012 - 20
Recording - April 2012 - 21
Recording - April 2012 - Sonodyne SM100Ak and SM50Ak Active Monitors
Recording - April 2012 - 23
Recording - April 2012 - Shure SRH1440 Headphones
Recording - April 2012 - 25
Recording - April 2012 - Noises In—Noises Out
Recording - April 2012 - 27
Recording - April 2012 - Recording Fundamentals. Chapter 4: Introduction To Microphones—Part One (History and Design)
Recording - April 2012 - 29
Recording - April 2012 - 30
Recording - April 2012 - 31
Recording - April 2012 - 32
Recording - April 2012 - 33
Recording - April 2012 - Reviewed and Revisited: iZotope Ozone 5 Advanced
Recording - April 2012 - 35
Recording - April 2012 - 36
Recording - April 2012 - 37
Recording - April 2012 - Pelonis Model 42 Stereo Monitors
Recording - April 2012 - 39
Recording - April 2012 - The Science And Art Of Ambisonics
Recording - April 2012 - 41
Recording - April 2012 - Little Labs i-VOG Analog Bass Resonance Tool
Recording - April 2012 - 43
Recording - April 2012 - Readers’ Tapes
Recording - April 2012 - 45
Recording - April 2012 - Plug-In Outlet
Recording - April 2012 - 47
Recording - April 2012 - 48
Recording - April 2012 - 49
Recording - April 2012 - 50
Recording - April 2012 - 51
Recording - April 2012 - 52
Recording - April 2012 - 53
Recording - April 2012 - Cerwin-Vega! XD3 Powered Desktop Speakers
Recording - April 2012 - 55
Recording - April 2012 - Once Over—Reviews In Brief
Recording - April 2012 - 57
Recording - April 2012 - 58
Recording - April 2012 - 59
Recording - April 2012 - Do It Yourself: Make Your Own Check Mix Monitor
Recording - April 2012 - 61
Recording - April 2012 - Rob Papen eXplorer
Recording - April 2012 - 63
Recording - April 2012 - 64
Recording - April 2012 - Advertiser Index
Recording - April 2012 - 66
Recording - April 2012 - 67
Recording - April 2012 - 68
Recording - April 2012 - 69
Recording - April 2012 - 70
Recording - April 2012 - 71
Recording - April 2012 - Fade Out
Recording - April 2012 - Cover3
Recording - April 2012 - Cover4
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